Mr. Elijah Timms

Inspired by discussion in the Series 11 Speculation Thread, I pose a simple question to my fellow CMF collectors... Out of all of the series of the popular CMF theme, which individual figs have you collected the greatest quantities of? The CMF has proven a great source for army-builders across the globe, so which figures have you bought the most multiples of? The Spartan? The Elf? The Galaxy Patrol? Aztec? Conquistador? Zombie? Flamenco Dancer???? Who??!! I invite all of you to list your Top 3 Army-Builder CMF minifigs. And I'll go first-- 1. Evil Knight, Series 7 - 19 figs 2. Revolutionary Solder, Series 10 - 18 figs 3. Evil Dwarf, Series 5 - 15 figs Obviously this is not a boasting thread to see who's spent the most money on CMFs, but rather what individual fig has been purchased the most. It'll be interesting to compare results, and potentially name the most popular army-builder fig of the entire series. Thanks!

i actually got the Tiki masks to stop tilting to either side and stand straight, but there was still the issue of it tilting down and away from the figs' faces. So I literally pinned them against the heads with their spears and let them be for several hours.that seems to have done the trick, but let's see now what happens when the masks are left unhindered.I'll most likely place a call to TLG to express my frustration, just for the sake of giving them direct feedback on my consumer impression.

Anybody else having problems with the Tiki masks?? Got 2, and both of 'em had their post mounts blended/twisted to the extent that the appear crooked when assembled on the fig. Absolutely horrible choice to go with rubber on this piece... Should've def. been ABS. In other news, the Scarecrow is one of the finest figs in the entire history of the theme. I believe I was the first to suggest it in CopMike's thread over 3 years ago, and it does not disappoint.

19 Evil Knights... Or, as they have become known in my Castle collection, The Brotherhood of The Boar.

Yep... I have a really strong hunch that we're going to get some sort of Classic Space set with modern aesthetics and building techniques. Could be really strong-- I'd love to see them do the same for Castle.

Maybe now there'll be a little less clowning around here, and a little more CLONING around! (nyuk nyuk) Congratulations!

Death Star Battle Pack would have been perfect with: 1 DS Gunner (really excited to finally see them pursue this), 1 DS Officer with the black helmet (same as in 9492), 1 Imperial Scanning Officer, and 1 Stormtrooper. Or even cut the scanner and give us another Imperial Officer in grey with the kepi. Still, this is a must-buy for me-- but only one. As an OT collector, I'm skipping the rest of the wave. Good luck next year TLG-- maybe then you'll give us the Bantha we all want!

Man... Really disappointed that the "Police Motorcycle Chase" doesn't include, well, a police motorcycle. I also have the feeling that the Car Transporter is going to be a very memorable set. Thx to everyone for sharing the inside info!

Maybe they should do a post office now... In 10 years we may not have them in our society altogether.

Crazy news, Tater! Thanks for sharing-- but, you didn't see any other non-Bats Justice League heroes besides the Flash?

Bricknblue, sorry if I sounded like I was trying to tell you what to do. What I should have said was "Personally, I'm going to wait until pics are unveiled to pass judgement." I certainly hear you with regards to the news of more police... OF COURSE I do... If you see my initial reaction to this thread, I said I'd likely skip the police sets (except for the motorcycle chase). But my first impressions have been proven wrong before. At any rate, sorry if I came off as confrontational, it was not my intent... (Offers a brick built olive branch)As for the news of an Airport Fire Truck-- excellent!! I didn't start collecting City until '09, so that'll definitely go on my list.

<EAGLE TO OSPREY: MISSION ABORT // I HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED // REPEAT, MISSION ABORT // MY COVER HAS BEEN BLOWN >

The year Lego City died?! Really?!! From an incomplete list of only Winter Wave sets? While I like new set leaks as much as anyone, let's remember that TLG wants to present them to us on their own terms. I went into each of the last 2 years saying I was going to stay away from all police sets, only to pick up the entire Elite series this year and all but one smaller set of the Forest Police series last year. In other words, keep an open mind, wait until pics are unveiled. I'm really excited about the Great Vehicles, myself!

Great job as always Klaus! Might skip the majority of police sets this year, but the first half of your Great Vehicles list sounds exceptional!! Nice job! Just to be certain-- you looked up Friends, but not SuperHeroes?!

I may be the only one, but seeing that we just got our second baseball team (first the 'Clutchers' in Series 3, now the 'Stackers' I'm Series 10), I'd love to see a new hockey player, of an opposing team. Even better if its a goalie. And best of all if they threw in a traditional player's stick to army build into a full team. That'd be perfect. I agree with the fur-trader idea above, hopefully with a coonskin cap. I'm also very welcome to any additional Greek, Roman, or Mythological figs as well-- these have been very well done and there's so much potential there. The shepherd is also a must, with the crooked staff and traditional headgear. I think the whole rock band concept can still be expanded upon-- how about a kooky folk singer type with an acoustic guitar? Doubt we'd get it, but a gray-coat Johnny Reb type figure would be great to go with the Union/Cavalry soldiers in the Lone Ranger sets. Still want a golfer as well.

Don't know if this was already divulged or not, but judging from everything i'd seen, it seemed all but a foregone conclusion that 60015 Coast Guard Plane would/will be a store exclusive, at least in the U.S. Well, i just saw the set at my local Target ($44.99). I'm fairly certain that the set will be a Target Exclusive. It looks great (love that fishing boat), but I must admit that's a pretty insane price for 279 pieces.

Hello. After numerous times of being among the fortunate first to have purchased and built new City sets, I've been feeling a growing obligation to give back to the EB community and share this information to help others shape their opinions as so many others have helped me in the past. So with that being said, I'm proud to unveil my first ever Eurobricks Review!! Please be advised, I have always had an affinity for reviews that share lots of pictures and small minutae discovered in the building process, and so I will attempt to do the same in my first. 60021 - Cargo Heliplane Set No: 60021 Theme/Subtheme: City/Cargo Year released: 2013 Total Pieces: 393 Minifigs: 3, plus 1 dog Price: $44.99 / €44.99 / £34.99 Lego Shop At Home Product Summary: This set is obviously based on the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, a multi-mission aircraft designed to combine the versatility of a helicopter with the long-range speed and performance of a prop aircraft. I'm no military expert, but from what I understand it received heavy criticism both during and after its development, but they are currently being deployed by the US Marine Corps and Air Force in a variety of functions. THE PACKAGING The box employs the standard City template, with a fairly busy shot of the loggers' work site and the large HeliPlane swooping in to lift something elsewhere. These woodsmen have obviously been hard at work, as there are very trees left standing in the background of the box front. If you're opposed to de-forestation, this may not be the set for you. On the back we see various vignettes of appropriate play for the set, such as the lumberjacks sawing the trunks down, riding the quad, stacking the lumber, and loading up the HeliPlane. I thought it was a bit odd that in the bottom left corner, TLG includes the 60019 Stunt Plane as part of the Cargo subtheme. The side panel features our minifigs in all of their glory-- the two lumberjacks are hard at work chopping down trees and such, as the impatient Cargo Pilot shares a drink with their dog. What's in that mug, anyway? THE CONTENTS This particular set contains 393 pieces, spread out among four bags with no large plates or other elements packed separately. No less than three instruction books are included to guide us through the set's construction, and last but not least we get a fairly small DSS to properly adorn our creation. More on that in a moment. Here's a random shot of the interior of book 2, followed by the parts call at the end of the final booklet. The manuals employ the same hazy blue sky/cloud/ocean as seen in other City sets this year, both pedestrian and maritime, so it's a fairly generic treatment but it works. Actually the green and white pieces of the heliplane really contrast with this hue and make for a fairly easy build. The back of book 1 features the WIN! kid-- no need to scan that ubiquitous image-- while the back of book 2 just continues the build process. Book 3, however, concludes with the gorgeous Cargo layout seen above. Obviously the 60022 Cargo Terminal takes center stage in this vignette, and rightfully so. This must be a frontier town's airport, however, as we can see our brave lumberjacks are actually clearing trees inside the gates of the airport itself. Remind me to never ever fly into a town that's still clearing trees around its runway, haha THE STICKER SHEET The sticker sheet is small, but there are no less than 14 separate decals to be applied, so there's still a bit of painstaking work. If you're anything like me, you demand nothing short of perfection in their application... which proved fairly difficult for the tail wing stickers seen above. They just didn't seem to be cut as accurately as these pieces usually are. I feel like I've done a million of these stickers onto the tail fin piece lately, but usually the decals are cut very precisely to their dimensions. Not so here; they were a bit short. MINIFIGS We receive three minifigs in this set, and they do not disappoint. My apologies for not including the dog above-- he was acting a bit aggressive after drinking whatever was in that cup and I wasn't about to disturb him. Both lumberjacks are wearing the same flannel workshirt torso seen in several of last year's Mining sets, such as 4200 Mining 4x4, but it still feels like a new figure. I'm guessing it's the red ballcaps with the ear protection assembly that give them a new feel. They both sport pants in natural earth tones, as a proper lumberjack should. I like these guys a lot. Then we have our dashing new Cargo Pilot. His torso, to my knowledge, is new. And it's beautiful. At first I thought it was the same torso as the Ship Captain in 2011's 4645 Harbour set, but there are many differences. The Ship Captain's got a blue tie, but our smarmy new pilot is sporting typical Cargo green; and where the Captain's got an anchor stitched into his right shirt pocket, the Pilot proudly wears his golden pilot's wings. He's got front and back printing and it's really a nice print job. This guy's got a real swagger to him with that clean white shirt and that cocky smirk on his face. I didn't include close-ups of the heads, since none of the prints are new. BAG ONE The first bag's contents are devoted entirely to the Lumberjacks and their assorted gear. There's not much in the way of new or exciting parts-- the large gray studs-on-the-side piece was the most unique thing that stood out for me. At any rate, this bag builds the Lumberjacks, a crate with their gear (seen below), a large palette to store the logs, the log transport device thing, their shiny red quad ATV, and last but not least the logs themselves. If you're a fan of 2x2 brown cylinder bricks, this set is the JACKPOT-- there's over 40 of them included, with 8 each per log for a total of 5 logs. It would have been nice for them to start as actual trees with foliage, but it's still an impressive haul for builders of horticulture. Our hard-working woodsmen get plenty of tools to work with, such as the circular saw, a small axe, a useful chain, a state-of-the-art chainsaw, and whatever this strange contraption is that transports the logs. The brick-built chainsaw looks great-- but not as great as the one included in last year's 4427 Fire ATV. That tool had to handles to hold onto, where our red one only has one. The log transporter uses those large claw pieces I've last seen in 70706 Crater Creeper-- but I've never seen them in red before. But then again I'm not much of a Technic builder so they could be commonplace there for all I know. The Loggers' quad is the typical fare for Lego four-wheeled ATV creations; It's serviceable, but a little boxy. This is especially seen from below where the vehicle seems like a perfect square, mostly because of the large tires set so far from the actual body of the quad. There's a handy tow hook on the back which is great for attaching the small chain to, enabling would-be woodsmen to hitch a log up to the quad and drag it back to the forest clearing to prepare for transport. This bag is really just a series of small builds, but there's a ton of playability packed into them. BAG TWO The second bag begins the build of the aircraft itself. With all of these green and white pieces with the occasional red thrown in, it initially felt like I was sitting down to build an Octan plane. But don't worry, the red disappears within the plane's interior, specifically the cockpit itself. Off all the pieces in Bag Two it's clearly the new cockpit nose piece that catches your eye instantly-- I've already seen this one in the new 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter set, but it really is a lovely design. It feels far less commercial and sleek than the previous nosecone we've seen for so long; I'm very happy with it. The floor of the plane comes together very quickly, and at first it seems SO small. One thing that disappointed me about the build was these dark gray flange-like elements on the rear of the plane-- each are built out of two sloped roof pieces and a 1x8 tile, but unfortunately there's not much else linking them to the structure itself. Young kids and rough-playing builders will likely see these elements come apart or break off the main model with little effort. You'll also see our pilot's cockpit, giving him ample space to man his printed slope piece. He's got no levers to grab onto, but what does he care? When it came time to install the winch/rope assembly, I thought there was a very simple but clever decision made to thread the string through the holes of a black 2x6 plate on the HeliPlane floor. The service hook is then tied on outside of the aircraft itself, so upon completion the hook just drops out of that small little hole and hides its entire rack of extra rope/thread. Granted, a TON of interior space is sacrificed as a result, but it does have a very clean appearance on the outside. You can also use one of the studs on the side of the hook to just attach it to the bottom of the HeliPlane, so our cocky pilot doesn't have to worry about flying through the back country with some ugly hook dangling from his belly. By the time we finish with Bag 2, we've got most of the fuselage completed, short of the roof, tail assembly and wings. It seems small at this point, but it gets much larger. BAG THREE The third bag builds the roof and tail wing structure, and then finally the massive wingspan that attaches across the entire plane itself. There's not much in the way of unique pieces, but I must confess, I have a strange fascination with Lego aircraft wheel and tire assemblies. For the record, there's actually two additional tires missing from the picture above, for a total of 7. An extra! Make no mistake, the tail and roof assembly is a boring build; but notice how much longer it instantly becomes upon adding this piece. Bear in mind that the rear wheels are added just at the rear of those dark gray flange elements, putting the wheels just barely beyond the midpoint of the aircraft. But don't worry, the wings become so heavy that there's little fear of the model tipping backward when at rest. Now I've been building Lego sets for a long, long time, but I've never encountered something like this in an official build before. When building the wing assembly, there's actually a strip of yellow and red that is build into the interior support structure-- red is on the left side of its horizontal axis, and yellow is on the right. You can see in the second picture how they are all but entirely hid from view before they entirely disappear within the heliplane's interior. WHY? My only guess is to reinforce the left and right sides for younger builders? It's strange because it's just so unnecessary... Once the wingspan has been attached, it is further locked into place with these small fender pieces, usually seen in quad and small car builds. I've never seen them in green before, and I thought they were a very clever piece to add to the plane's overall aesthetic design and aerodynamic appearance. Also notice the click hinge elements on the tips of the wings-- these are the same pieces used to attach roof elements, and more recently, the wings on the 70701 Swarm Interceptor Galaxy Squad fighter. These are actually used to attach the rotors, which was news to me-- I figured they'd just be on a rod and would swivel 360 degrees on either end, but this is not the case. BAG FOUR The fourth and final bag builds the engine and rotor assemblies on either side of the heliplane, and are what give it its unique and signature look. Despite a relatively small amount of pieces in this bag, the third instruction manual is dedicated entirely to this build. This is because each engine is built independently, despite them being exact mirror images of one another. For a seasoned builder, it can be done in half the time by simply building them as mirror duplicates of one another. These things are fairly large-- As you start out it almost feels like you're building a small watercraft or speeder. Once the top elements are added, they look a bit more proper. You can see how large the rotors are as well. They're held onto the rod with a single black cone, but don't worry-- they're not going anywhere. THE COMPLETED BUILD The resulting build is a very unique and eyecatching design that would stand out in any City or Airport layout. Like most aircraft and even road vehicles, the scale is certainly not correct, but it does have a very appealing and rugged style to it. This thing is certainly not going to break any sound barriers, but it does feel like a workhorse, which is pretty cool. Thanks to those click hinge attachments, the rotors do not swivel 360 degrees. In fact, they can only tilt downwards about 80 degrees before they want to break off. But why would you want to tilt them down anyway? Tilting them up is another story, as they are very much designed to pivot a full 90 degrees into its true VTOL orientation. The rear hatch does open, giving a place for the lumberjacks to store their crate of tools. But why on earth would the HeliPlane want to fly off with their gear? It would have been much more exciting if our loggers could push their quad into the rear hold, but at 6 studs wide our hotshot pilot just isn't having it. His interior is only 4-wide and he aims to keep it that way. EXTRA PIECES The usual suspects, but with a few nice surprises. As stated before, you get an extra aircraft tire. TLG also throws in an extra of the new ear protector piece. Of the new Summer '13 sets so far, I've built all of the Coast Guard sets, the Grand Prix Truck, and the Monster Truck Transporter-- each of those have the new ear protector pieces, and each of them gives you an extra one as well. If only TLG hooked us up with an extra ballcap with the pre-drilled hole to accommodate them; I've got plenty of ballcaps but not enough with the holes. THE FINAL VERDICT I'm not much for numerical grades-- it always seems that whenever they're tallied at the end, they don't equal the sentiments of the reviewer. So instead, I'm just going to assign a letter grade like your favorite teacher did, and allow you to award your own numerical award at your leisure. MINIFIGS: B+ These guys are pretty great, and although the lumberjacks aren't a new torso, they really feel like one. They've also got plenty of accessories to make them look less like miners and more like rugged logging men. And what's not to love about the Cargo Pilot? It's a really clean and slick print I couldn't be happier with him, unless of course they would've thrown in the new Sea Captain's hat from CMF Series 10 with some wings printed on the brim. Top it off with another german shepherd dog and we've got a nice collection of figs here. BUILD: B It's not the most amazing thing I've ever built, but it's got very clean lines and accomplishes exactly what it intends to. I wish it could have been a little wider, and certainly I wish we had more interior space... anyone looking to convert this thing into its true military purpose is going to have to move a few things around, but it's certainly possible. The lumberjack builds are fun, but beg for more. More on that in a moment. PRICE: B I'm all for trying to reach the 10 cent price ratio, but it rarely happens anymore. Still, at 393 pieces, $44.99 isn't a bad price. I bit on the TRU markup and paid the full $50 USD, but I just couldn't help myself. Still, I'd say wait until it hits all of the stores and get it at the MSRP. PLAYABILITY: B There's a lot of fun to be had here, but I'm sure it would get monotonous after a while for kids. Sure, there's plenty of work and fun to be had with the lumberjacks-- the log cylinders alone just beg to be "cut up" into their smaller pieces, and I'm sure kids will enjoy that the most-- but the HeliPlane itself is kind of a one-trick pony in this set. Yeah, you pick up the log. But where do you put it? Why are you air-lifting a single log and wasting all that fuel to do so? It only seems to reinforce the feeling that this set was a bunch of separate builds that were sort of forced together. VERDICT: B I'm probably just a harsh critic-- I like this set a lot. It just feels like it was sort of thrown together. I'm guessing someone over in Denmark built an amazing V-22 Osprey model months and months ago and TLG has just been searching and searching for a way to compile it into a production set. The result feels like a mish-mash of what seems to be two very promising but under-developed themes. Cargo is begging to be expanded upon-- why not give us a great little $20 set of a green delivery truck with a worker who gets his own dedicated green jacket and shorts, instead of throwing all the ground workers into coveralls. Just think "Brown," and then make it "Green." BOOM! We've got a winner. Also, the Logger theme could be really, really, great if TLG decides to open it up. Sawing, cutting, hauling-- this is all fun any boy would enjoy. I say they give us a nice little army/forest builder of a fully-realized tree with foliage, and a hard-working logger who then cuts it up and processes it into lumber. Imagine another set with a lumber train car-- haul the logs up to the rail and drop them into the train car to be shipped. How about an 18-wheeler full of lumber? Possibly it's the only kind of trailer we've yet to receive, right? And finally, imagine how much fun a Lego sawmill could be... Until then, we've got this set. I'd still recommend it to anyone just because the HeliPlane is such a unique and clever aircraft-- there's nothing like it in my collection and I'm sure they're never will be again. Thanks!

Oh, absolutely... I've already tinkered a bit with removing the winch assembly & adding doors to either side, to create a troop carrier. If you gutted the interior, I suppose you might fit 6 figs inside. Accessibility is the concern there.

2 TIKIS A BOX??!! Are you kidding me?! Otherwise this review is full of great stuff... Thanks as always White Fang!

Why don't you leave such things to the Mods, my friend? You're not one of them, by the way ;)

I picked up the CMF book fairly cheap this morning, and finally got my hands on the Toy Soldier fig included with the book. What a wasted opportunity-- talk about an amazing army builder that never was!! Great little fig... I'd have picked up at least a dozen to swap out heads. Why couldn't they have put the Sad Clown in here and included the Toy Soldier in Series 10...?

Yep, I have to agree with you Blondie. I've got a complete set, so there's no stopping now... but I just don't have the same enthusiasm as I did 7 or 8 series ago. Wow, that sounds like a joke but it's actually true!

Agreed. That or some old curmudgeonly principal type.

:) It's that chauvinist pig drive-in owner, sending out his wait staff half-naked as eye candy to drum up business. Somebody ought to report him to Chase McCain...

You guys can have all the figs you want-- just give me the COLOSSUS big fig and nobody gets hurt!!! Seriously, though-- he's perfect. If that fig ever comes out with chrome detailing he's mine at whatever the cost. He can come in an X-Men waste treatment plant set and I'd still get it!!